OUR VIEW: Midfield city officials can't say they didn't have fair warning that an electronic bingo hall they licensed was a problem

What just about everyone guessed would happen -- the new bingo parlor in Midfield wasn't long for this world -- happened.

City officials this past Friday received a letter from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office warning of a raid. The sheriff's office had investigated Lucky Duck Bingo in the Midfield Plaza Shopping Center and determined it was allowing illegal gambling. The threat to take action worked; Lucky Duck Bingo closed its doors Sunday.

All's well that ends well? Not really.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has sent a clear message he takes a hard line against electronic bingo. (The Huntsville Times/Robin Conn)

Electronic bingo has been and likely will continue to be a problem in Jefferson County, even though Sheriff Mike Hale, Birmingham division District Attorney Brandon Falls and state Attorney General Luther Strange have taken a hard line on the legality of electronic bingo.

Lucky Duck can't say it wasn't warned about the dangers of opening. Three days before Midfield approved the bingo license for Lucky Duck, the county sheriff's and DA's offices and the AG's office raided two bingo halls and seized more than 160 electronic bingo machines.

Three months before Midfield issued the license, Strange told local law-enforcement officials across Alabama that in his view, slot machines and other gambling devices are illegal in all 67 counties, even those with local amendments that authorize "charity bingo." Strange also said he would strictly enforce the requirements in local amendments.

Jefferson County's amendment, for example, prohibits a nonprofit from entering into a contract with anyone to operate the games. Nor does it allow the paying of salaries, expenses or fees in connection with the game. These are rules local electronic bingo halls have pretty much ignored.

Plus, Strange cited an Alabama Supreme Court ruling from a few years ago that set six guidelines for legal bingo in Alabama that all but preclude legal electronic bingo. Those guidelines include players using cards with five rows and columns; numbers being randomly drawn and announced one by one; each player marking his card accordingly; and players in a group playing against each other to be the first to win and announce that fact.

It's doubtful Lucky Duck or anyone else could meet all those requirements and guidelines and operate legally in Jefferson County.

What Jefferson County and the rest of Alabama need is resolution, once and for all, of the electronic bingo issue. It won't come from state lawmakers. In a matter of a year, electronic bingo has moved from the Legislature's front burner to where it is not only not on the stove, it's not even in the kitchen. Lawmakers are not about to weigh in on the issue. It will be up to the state Supreme Court to do so.

In the meantime, expect to keep seeing electronic bingo halls pop up in Jefferson County and operate for as long as they can. And when they close, or are shut down, neither they nor the city officials who licensed them and allowed them to open can say they weren't warned.